Seventy-five-year-old Rodolfo Diaz, a member of the Tumandok tribe, and the oldest political prisoner in Panay, walked out of the Iloilo District Jail on October 28 after the local court granted his petition for bail.
“They have many ways to silence us, but we also have many ways to continue.”
“The police personnel’s justification of their arrests along with other human rights defenders, is a blatant manifestation of weaponizing the law to silence and repress those who criticize the government’s failed pandemic response, corruption and trade union and human rights violations.”
KMU said that the “ratified” warrant stems from a peaceful protest that was held in July 2020.
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog is asking the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Mimaropa and the Regional Trial Court Branch 81 for an explanation to the allegations that Maria Teresa Dioquino is being held in solitary confinement and harassed by military intelligence officials.
“The pattern of the police’s use of search warrants, planting evidence and effecting the arbitrary arrests and detention of individuals like Pastor Dan Balucio is a glaring form of weaponization of the judiciary against activists and dissenters.”
“Simply put, the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) had no solid, intelligent basis before launching massive operations in a rural sitio in Nasugbu, Batangas in April 2020.”
On the day KMP leader Joseph Canlas was buried, two elderly, ailing peasant activists were arrested.
The prosecutor noted that the statements of the witnesses, co-witnesses and the circumstances leading to the identification of Jenelyn Nagrampa-Caballero and Pastor Dan San Andres “are tainted with doubt and irregularity.”
Apart from the red-tagging of Joseph Canlas on social media, threats were felt by members of his family in their own homes.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL MANILA – Lies! These were the sentiments of human rights workers who were recently issued with arrest warrants based solely on shady testimonies. Karapatan’s national chairperson Elisa Lubi and Karapatan-Southern Mindanao Region secretary general Jayvee “Jay” Apiag were slapped with attempted murder charges by Corporal Elvin Jay Claud on June…